Death March has been tough on OKC

Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

With the Oklahoma City Thunder dropping another game to the Golden State Warriors, they keep demonstrating how they can always play just good enough to lose.

With the last five games that the Thunder have played, all have come down to five points or less. All of these games are becoming crucial as the playoffs are just around the corner. To Thunder fans disappointment, this is not how we were expecting this team to play this late in the season.

In this latest game against the Warriors, the Thunder missed 56-of-93 shots taken. That means that besides three-pointers and free throws, the Thunder only made 37 shots. With that said, the Thunder went 9-of-35 from beyond the arch. Carmelo Anthony went 2-of-9 from three-point range. the Thunder would have won the game by one point.

“It’s frustrating when we see that [Westbrook going off],” Paul George said. “When we notice that, and we can’t help him by making shots.”

And their missing isn’t all about bad shot selection. We saw all of Melo’s open looks throughout the game. We would have blamed him for not taking them if he hadn’t.

“Yeah, I don’t worry about that stuff, man, as far as missing or making shots,” Anthony said. “I’ve made a lot of shots in my career, and I’ve missed a lot of shots in my career. Those same shots, I’ll probably make tomorrow, and we won’t even be talking about that.”

Against the Warriors, he didn’t make those shots.

Going from one of the top defenses in the league to one that suffers from defensive breakdowns every game has been a hard pill to swallow. Losing Roberson has made it seem even harder for this team to hold a solid defense. To put it in stats, the Thunder were the fifth best defensive team in the league, and have now dropped to 23rd.

With all of these issues going on, the Thunder still seems to have a good head on their shoulders as the playoff continue to get closer.

“As long as we’re good in this locker room — regardless of what anybody says outside of this locker room — it really don’t matter,” Westbrook said. “As long as we’re good as a team, as a unit, as brothers, we have a great relationship on and off the floor.”

Let’s hope that this great relationship is enough to be able to pull through and start playing good enough to win.